pretty simple, poking around donald miller's blog as usual and stumbled upon a little link to this website here. so if it is good enough for donald miller, it's good enough for me. so i read it and it was really neat because i think that it is easy to be apathetic. at the very least our culture doesn't necessarily encourage us to be all out gung-ho for things. we gotta be cool, calm and collected. but i think that God created us to be wildly passionate, do things on an impulse, live life without caring what others think. i think God created us to be screaming at trains, having others stare at us for knowing what a "snc52" is.
also, i can see nathan bofto being that guy.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
happenings.
man-o-man. it's been awhile so this will be a biggie. got my journal by my side to recount it all so grab a glass of ice cold squirt and sit down.
reading the post of the woman from the theater that cully threw up was so encouraging. because so often we hold to a prosperity gospel that God is good only when He allows good in our life. but more and more lately i want struggles. i don't want things to be easy. i want God to trust me with difficulties, tough stuff not because i can handle it. that is precisely why i want them, because i want to rely on God, pray to Him, lean on Him. and that woman was a real life example of what it meant to lean into the everlasting arms of our Savior.
in the car heading back to school, i had tons of time to think. that may even be an understatement. and as i reflected over the summer, i was so thankful for it. i got fun, got work, and got to be home. but honestly, i didnt feel as if i was as intentional about my relationship with my Savior as i could have been. i say this because of thoughts that elicited from a young life kid's reaction to hearing about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. when asked why she was crying, she said, "i just don't know why i am not constantly thinking about what He did." so simple yet so eloquent. because if we believe in the sacrifice and the fact that Jesus gave his life, why should we not give our thoughts and actions?
and camp. whew! it has been "over" for 5 days and i'm still recovering. we had the same four guys from last year, gus / dane / kurt / chad + jacob / joseph / connor. so 7 soon-to-be juniors hanging out. the camp speaker's name was ken tankersley so everyone just called him tank. and he did such a great job making Jesus relatable, the gospel applicable, and life with Christ realistic. in his words, "we talked about life, we talked about God and we talked about life with God." it was just so great hearing open and honest conversation from the guys about the different aspects of the gospel and Jesus' story. even guys who didn't really want anything to do with the gospel said they enjoyed being able to be perfectly themselves at camp without having to pretend to be somebody else to please others. and that was awesome. getting to see guys who never are in the same social circle back home hang out, enjoy each other and learn about one another's lives.
one of the cooler stories that tank outlined from the gospel was the story of the rich young ruler in mark 10. i think i appreciated it even more when paired with the gospel. i'll get to why in a bit. but tank laid out that the rich young ruler came up and understood all the rules and regulations. he had kept the commandments and followed the 613 prohibitions from the torah. but when he came to Jesus, he was hoping he could add another title to his name. he wanted to become the rich young religious ruler. he wanted to keep the three other things that defined him but add onto his life. i can so often relate to desiring to add God onto my life instead of making Him my life. and that is how it related to the talk about the crucifixion. because when Jesus died for me, it was like a proposal for new and full life. it is easy to say "yes" but another thing completely to commit. i could say "yes" and change my relationship status on facebook but it won't matter until i change my lifestyle to reflect my commitment.
finally, jonah werner did music for the camp and he was the same guy who did music for my work crew session. it was so much fun hearing his music once again and his amazing story telling. he continually pointed his stories towards the message of the gospel and i loved it. it made me hope that whatever profession i choose / chooses me, that i can use it to the same effect. if you don't have his music, lemme know. because it's good.
and being back has been interesting because i'm pretty much alone without people at apu being here. summer classes are over, r.a.'s are on training, most researchers went home for the month and it's just me. in my super hot apartment because the a/c is broken. today it was 93 degrees. in. my. apartment. but it has been nice to walk with the young life guys through navigating home life after camp. because as great as camp is, it is mostly a glimpse of what life can be like it you allow it. camp represents the highs in home life while you still eventually come down (law of undulation - thank you westerberg).
so as disjointed as this was, that has been a mere glimpse of the past few weeks.
reading the post of the woman from the theater that cully threw up was so encouraging. because so often we hold to a prosperity gospel that God is good only when He allows good in our life. but more and more lately i want struggles. i don't want things to be easy. i want God to trust me with difficulties, tough stuff not because i can handle it. that is precisely why i want them, because i want to rely on God, pray to Him, lean on Him. and that woman was a real life example of what it meant to lean into the everlasting arms of our Savior.
in the car heading back to school, i had tons of time to think. that may even be an understatement. and as i reflected over the summer, i was so thankful for it. i got fun, got work, and got to be home. but honestly, i didnt feel as if i was as intentional about my relationship with my Savior as i could have been. i say this because of thoughts that elicited from a young life kid's reaction to hearing about Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. when asked why she was crying, she said, "i just don't know why i am not constantly thinking about what He did." so simple yet so eloquent. because if we believe in the sacrifice and the fact that Jesus gave his life, why should we not give our thoughts and actions?
and camp. whew! it has been "over" for 5 days and i'm still recovering. we had the same four guys from last year, gus / dane / kurt / chad + jacob / joseph / connor. so 7 soon-to-be juniors hanging out. the camp speaker's name was ken tankersley so everyone just called him tank. and he did such a great job making Jesus relatable, the gospel applicable, and life with Christ realistic. in his words, "we talked about life, we talked about God and we talked about life with God." it was just so great hearing open and honest conversation from the guys about the different aspects of the gospel and Jesus' story. even guys who didn't really want anything to do with the gospel said they enjoyed being able to be perfectly themselves at camp without having to pretend to be somebody else to please others. and that was awesome. getting to see guys who never are in the same social circle back home hang out, enjoy each other and learn about one another's lives.
one of the cooler stories that tank outlined from the gospel was the story of the rich young ruler in mark 10. i think i appreciated it even more when paired with the gospel. i'll get to why in a bit. but tank laid out that the rich young ruler came up and understood all the rules and regulations. he had kept the commandments and followed the 613 prohibitions from the torah. but when he came to Jesus, he was hoping he could add another title to his name. he wanted to become the rich young religious ruler. he wanted to keep the three other things that defined him but add onto his life. i can so often relate to desiring to add God onto my life instead of making Him my life. and that is how it related to the talk about the crucifixion. because when Jesus died for me, it was like a proposal for new and full life. it is easy to say "yes" but another thing completely to commit. i could say "yes" and change my relationship status on facebook but it won't matter until i change my lifestyle to reflect my commitment.
finally, jonah werner did music for the camp and he was the same guy who did music for my work crew session. it was so much fun hearing his music once again and his amazing story telling. he continually pointed his stories towards the message of the gospel and i loved it. it made me hope that whatever profession i choose / chooses me, that i can use it to the same effect. if you don't have his music, lemme know. because it's good.
and being back has been interesting because i'm pretty much alone without people at apu being here. summer classes are over, r.a.'s are on training, most researchers went home for the month and it's just me. in my super hot apartment because the a/c is broken. today it was 93 degrees. in. my. apartment. but it has been nice to walk with the young life guys through navigating home life after camp. because as great as camp is, it is mostly a glimpse of what life can be like it you allow it. camp represents the highs in home life while you still eventually come down (law of undulation - thank you westerberg).
so as disjointed as this was, that has been a mere glimpse of the past few weeks.
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